Mars Express is a mission of the European Space Agency that aims to study the red planet as a whole, from its interior to its atmosphere, including the surface and climate. MARSIS is one of its main instruments, and it was the one that detected the presence of liquid water on Mars a few years ago. So why is MARSIS back in the news? Because after 19 years it received an update for its software, which was originally designed on Windows 98…
If you want to install Windows 98 on a machine today, you need to prepare for a true archaeological adventure. You'll have to dig up drivers and old versions of popular software, search for enthusiast-modified patches, and cross swords with unofficial Service Packs that on a bad day can blow everything up. Windows 98 presents unexpected challenges even in virtual environments, with strange errors and limited functionality.
Now, imagine Windows 98 as a mandatory tool to do your job. That is what happened to the people in charge of the instrument MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding) aboard the orbital module of the mission Mars Express. With the goal of improving the performance and efficiency of MARSIS, engineer Carlo Nenna of Enginium and a team from INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) created a new software update, originally developed in a special environment on Windows 98.
Updating Martian software made on Windows 98
A bit of context: Unless a new extension is authorized, Mars Express can continue its operations until December 31, 2022. The satellite has been collecting very valuable information about Mars for nearly 19 years, and it is the second oldest orbital mission still operating on the planet, after Mars Odyssey.
Andrea Cicchetti, operations manager at INAF and one of the masterminds behind MARSIS, explains that with the update they seek "to take the performance of the instrument further", crossing some of the limitations required at the beginning of the mission. For example, when studying the main features of Mars and its moon Phobos, the technique used generates a large amount of high-resolution data, quickly filling the integrated memory.
With the help of the new software and a more intelligent discarding process, MARSIS can expand its exploration sweeps by five times or more. Many regions of the Martian south pole suggest the presence of liquid water, but the available data is low resolution. With the update, they will be able to review and update all those regions faster.
In summary: Software engineers and space mission experts faced the whims of software made on Windows 98, and they have prevailed. If this depended on Microsoft, the satellite would end up with the Bing bar or something like that…
(Editor's note: Many sites have reported that the probe is running Windows 98, but the official publication does not suggest that at any point)
Official announcement: Click here
